Clever Tactics Earn Sanchez the Stage Eight Win

Caisse d'Epargne rider Luis-Leon Sanchez used smart tactics and good timing to win Stage Eight of the 2009 Tour de France.

Sanchez joined the breakaway group halfway through the race, and shared the workload through the second half.

When the breakaway was half a kilometer from the end, Sanchez let Francaise des Jeux rider Sandy Casar, who had been attacking since the start of the race, spend his energy leading out for Sanchez’s final sprint. Sanchez then launched for the line and won by a bike length.

The General Classification remained unchanged, with Rinaldo Nocentini in yellow, trailed by Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, just seconds behind.

More Mountains

Stage Eight, Andorre-la-Vieille to Saint-Girons, was fifty km shorter than Stage Seven, but still offered three categorized climbs: the Category One Port d'Envalira, a 23.2 km climb with a 5percent grade; the Cat. Two Col de Port, steeper at 5.5 percent, but only half as long; and the final 12.4 km Col d’Agnès, a Cat. One, six percent grade in the final quarter of the race, to break the legs and the will of all but the strongest riders.

Unrest in Team Astana? 

There was much discussion after Stage Seven about the performance of Team Astana and Lance Armstrong, and the escape by Alberto Contador. Astana rider Levi Leipheimer hinted that there were team, orders and Alberto had acted on his own. Many people felt that since the rest Team Astana had worked so hard to set the pace, it was unfair for Contador to attack his own teammates, in his personal quest for the yellow jersey.

The main issue raised by Contador’s attack is one of teamwork versus personal ambition. Lance Armstrong followed team orders and worked for the goods of the team. Contador saw a chance to grab an advantage, and took a chance. However, Team Astana’s orders were designed to prevent a battle from breaking out between Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador.  

Astana Racing director Johann Bruyneel had planned to wait as long as possible to choose a team leader, hoping that one or the other rider would clearly have a better chance at the overall win, so the team could keep unity and not be torn by resentment.

Even though some of Contador’s teammates might have been a little annoyed by Contador’s somewhat selfish performance, probably all of them could understand this motivation. However, if Contador cannot restrain himself and work as a member of the team, in time he will find the team will not support him.

Uphill Battle

Stage Eight was filled with racing action, as individuals and small groups attacked almost constantly. The GC contenders were content to stay in the peloton and wait for the final climb, while lesser-known riders from smaller teams, inspired by Feillu’s and Nocentini’s efforts in Stage Seven, took the chance to gain time and possibly a stage win.

The race started with the Cat. One Port d'Envalira, hurting the riders before they had a chance to warm up.

The attacks started early when Sylvain Calzati of Agritubel went ahead, followed immediately by Thierry Hupont of Skil-Shimano. Many riders counterattacked and rode them down. Then Amets Txurruka of Euskatel Euskadi made a move.

The real attacks on the slopes of Port d'Envalira came from Silence-Lotto rider Cadel Evans, who led a group away. Francaise des Jeux rider Sandy Casar attacked the group, opening a one-minute gap, but couldn’t increase his lead.

The various counterattacks split the peloton into several groups. Sandy Casar attacked again and opened a gap over the lead chase group of five riders led by Cadel Evans, and including David Zabriskie, Egoi Martinez, Vladamir Efimkin, and Christophe Kern. This group was ridden down by the second chase group of Juan Antonio Flecha, George Hincapie, Fabian Cancellara, and Thor Hushovd.

At this point Casar was one minute ahead of the first chase group, which was half a minute ahead of the second chase group of 26 riders, which was half a minute ahead of the peloton, where Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, and yellow-jersey-wearer Rinaldo Nocentini all rode.

Halfway down the descent, the peloton caught the second chase group. At this point Sandy Casar was 0:45 ahead of the chasers, who were a minute ahead of the peloton. It seemed unlikely that there would be a successful breakaway this early in the stage. By fifty km, the chase group caught Casar; by sixty-five km the peloton rode most of them down.

Of the original attackers, a group of six stayed away: Juan Antonio Flecha, George Hincapie, Fabian Cancellara, Thor Hushovd, Vladamir Efimkin, and Sandy Casar. None of these were in contention for the GC, so the peloton was not overly concerned. Cancellara, who wore the yellow jersey for the first week, had lost nine minutes in Stage Seven, and was no longer a favorite to win.

When the riders hit the feed zone at the base of the second climb, the lead group was just over a minute ahead. Mikel Astarloza, Luis-Leon Sanchez, Sébastien Rosseler, and Mikhail Ignatiev had managed to bridge the gap and join the leaders. Still the peloton was content to wait and let the ten attackers race each other.

As the riders began the second climb of the day, Thor Hushovd and Sébastian Rosseler fell off the back, as the leaders opened a gap of over four minutes. The pace of the race was quite high; the peloton was averaging about forty kph despite the climbs.

The size of the gap meant that Caisse d'Epargne rider Luis-Leon Sanchez took over the yellow jersey, if he could keep his advantage to the end. However, by the start of the last climb, the gap had dropped to two minutes, leaving the yellow in Nocentini’s grasp.

Attacks Near the Summit

One third of the way up the Col d’Agnès, Andy Schleck and his brother Frank attacked the peloton. This was the first serious attack of possible tour winners, and a lot of riders counterattacked. This group included Andy Schleck, Juan Antonio Flecha, Sébastien Rosseler, Lance Armstrong, Frank Schleck, Kim Kirchen, Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador, Andréas Klöden, Tony Martin, Carlos Sastre, Cadel Evans, Jurgen Van der Broek, Christian Vande Velde, Bradley Wiggins, Roman Kreuziger, Vincenzo Nibali, and Vladimir Karpets.

At five km from the summit, the leading group of four were 1:20 ahead of the chase group, who were 30 seconds ahead of the peloton. Contador, at this point, was the “virtual” yellow jersey holder. However, over the next kilometer, the peloton was able to catch the chase group.

Two kilometers from the peak, Vladimir Efimkin made repeated attacks on the lead group, trying to shake whoever he could. Sandy Casar responded once, but could not respond again, and was dropped.

With a kilometer to go to the peak, the peloton eased the pace, allowing the gap to open to 2:30.

Downhill Battle

On the descent, Astarloza attacked, and Sandy Casar turned up the speed incredibly to catch up the three leaders. George Hincapie also decided to risk his safety by driving hard on the descent. However, Hincapie couldn’t reach the breakaway and fell back to the peloton.

With twenty kilometers to go, it seemed the breakaway would survive, as the peloton had no reason to spend energy catching them when the yellow jersey was in the peloton. The next day’s stage includeds two very difficult climbs, the Cat. One, 1490-meter Col d’Aspin and the Hors Categorie, 2115-meter Col de Tourmalet. The day after that will be a rest day, so it is likely that there would be many hard attacks in Stage Nine. 

Smart Tactics Earn the Win

Five kilometers from the line, the leaders started attacking. Astraloza went first, and everyone responded. Vladimir Efimkin cleverly allowed the other riders to pull him back up to Astraloza, and then when the other three were tired from the chase, Efimkin attacked and the rest couldn’t respond.

The three chasers worked as a team to try to catch Efemkin, but with a kilometer to go, Efimkin had twenty-five meters on them.

Half a kilometer out Sanchez decided to go. He attacked, which prompted an attack from Sandy Casar. When the pair caught Efimikin, Sanchez craftily slowed, allowing Casar to pass him. Sanchez immediately tucked into Casar’s slipstream to save energy, and thirty meters from the line, launched an all-out sprint. Casar couldn’t catch the speeding Spaniard, and Sanchez pushed through the pain and took the victory by a bike length.

The peloton finished en masse, so there were no changes in the General Classification. Rinaldo Nocentini retains the yellow jersey heading into the final stage in the Pyrenees.

After the stage, Garmin Chipotle leader Christian Vande Velde commented on the difficulty of climbing tall mountains with cold legs: “It was really hard at the beginning. We went up through Envalira and that’s a really hard, long climb, especially right out of the blocks. Cadel attacked through there and it was a really long chase. When it came together another group went off. We really dint know what was going to happen, if guys were going to launch guys up the road to their teammates or what.”

About the different strategies of different teams: “I think Saxo Bank wanted to put Astana back in the jersey to put a little more pressure on them, but that would have been a hard thing to do.”

As for why the peloton set so high a pace, he said, “A couple of those guys in the breakaway were pretty good, we didn’t want to just give them free time.”

Stage Eight Results				General Classification After Stage Eight
	Rider	Team	Time			Rider		Team	Time	Gap
1	Luis-Leon Sanchez	Caisse d’Epargne	4:31:50		1	Rinaldo Nocentini		AG2R	30:18:16	0:00
2	Sandy Casar	Francaise de Jeux	4:31:50		2	Alberto Contador		Astana	30:18:22	0:06
4	Vladimir Efimkin	AG2R	+3:05		4	Levi Leipheimer		Astana	30:18:55	0:39
5	José Rojas		+1:54:06		5	Bradley Wiggins		Garmin-Slipstream	30:18:55
6	Christophe Riblon	AG2R	+1:54:07		6	Andréas Klöden		Astana	30:19:02	0:54
7	Peter Velits	Milram	+1:54:08		7	Tony Martin		Columbia-HTC	30:19:16	1:00
8	Sebastien Menard	Cofidis	1:5409		8	Christian Vande Velde		Garmin-Slipstream	30:19:40	1:24
9	Jeremy Roy	Francaise de Jeux	1:54:10		9	Andy Schleck		Team Saxo Bank	30:20:05	1:49
10	Thomas Voeckler	Bbox Bouyges	1:54		10	Vincenzo Nibali		Liquigas	30:20:10	1:54